Land to be conserved

Adjacent lumberyard, substation advance

It’s taken about a decade, but the Duxbury Land Trust has finally been granted conservation easements for land located on former state farm property off Route 100.

Other portions of the property will be home to a lumberyard that has stirred up controversy in town over the last three years, as well as a Green Mountain Power substation.

The Duxbury Land Trust has been pursuing conservation of the property since the land trust formed 20 years ago. Audrey Quackenbush and her husband Alan have served on the land trust that entire time, and she’s thrilled about the easements.

“It’s nice to see plans fulfilled,” Audrey Quackenbush said Monday.

She said the state of Vermont donated the final two conservation easements in conjunction with the sale of a 37-acre parcel of the former farm property to developer Steven Noyes.

The sale to Noyes, totaling $90,000, was finalized in April, according to Jeff Lively, legal counsel with the state’s Department of Buildings and General Services.

The lumberyard will be built on Noyes’ 37-acre parcel near the Crossett Brook Middle School. Noyes also owns the East Montpelier Home Center, a hardware and lumber store.

Noyes has been pursuing the parcel since it was put out to bid about three years ago.

Several neighbors and area residents have protested the plans for a lumberyard over the last three years, raising concerns about traffic, noise and pollution near the middle school.

But Noyes is now set to move forward with the project.

“He won the opportunity and was diligent in pursuing the permits,” Lively said.

Noyes did not return phone calls for comment by press time.

According to Lively, Noyes has said he will continue to preserve seven historic buildings on the property that reflect the land’s farming history.

“It’s a win-win-win for everyone,” Lively said.

The third “win” he’s referring to goes to Green Mountain Power (GMP), which reached an agreement with Noyes to build a substation on a portion of the property. GMP’s former substation was heavily damaged during Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.

When GMP came into the mix, Lively said, the state and local permitting process halted as all three parties involved tried to strike a new deal.

“The GMP proposal threw everything out of whack,” Lively said. “We had to reevaluate the site and, in the end, (Noyes) got what he wanted and GMP got what they wanted.”

Preserve and conserve

The Duxbury Land Trust now holds easements on three parcels of the former farm property, including 73 acres of the Crossett Hill parcel, 92 acres on both sides of River Road, and 100 acres of wetland behind Crossett Brook Middle School.

The 265 total acres now under the land trust’s care represent about 66 percent of the former state farm.

The state is retaining ownership of two parcels surrounding River Road for agricultural, forestry and recreational purposes.

Quackenbush said the state determined years ago that the property should be conserved because of its proximity to the Winooski River, which provides key wildlife habitat.

“And it’s good for the floodplain to not have any structures built there,” Quackenbush said.

She said the state Fish and Wildlife Commission also felt restricting development on the parcel would benefit the river’s trout population and help protect deeryards in the area.

Land uses permitted under the conservation easements are fairly limited.

“There are a lot of restrictions about what you can and cannot do, and without conservation easements, no one would be monitoring it,” Quackenbush said.

She said maple sugaring and other non-evasive forestry and agricultural uses are permitted. The easements are intended to “conserve wildlife and keep part of the farm that was there still open and not developed,” she said.

She said the land trust will check the properties on an annual basis to make sure the conservation requirements are being met.

This means meeting and “establishing a good relationship” with adjacent landowners like Noyes, she said.

“We are looking to maintain Duxbury the way it is and to maintain open space and recreation for the public,” Quackenbush said.

Farm history

The state farm once spanned 1,500 acres and was home to the state’s second largest barn. It also had a piggery, slaughterhouse and garden that served the nearby Vermont State Hospital, according to a 2009 article from the Duxbury Historical Society’s newsletter. Its vegetable gardens helped feed over 1,000 patients and 300 staff members.

Patients worked in the fields cultivating crops and learning sustainable living techniques until the 1970s, when the state started leasing the land to private farmers.

After an enormous fire engulfed the main barn in 1942, the state built the iconic yellow barn that still stands on the property today.